We've practically been living on baked beans for the last couple of years. But we've put away enough for a deposit on our first home.

We looked on the net, spoke to family and friends and checked out the best-buy tables in the newspapers. We noticed that the Yorkshire Building Society was number one in the best buys, so we decided to find out if it would lend to us.

We couldn't believe it. To be honest, the experience knocked our confidence and set us back, as we lost a few hundred pounds in legal and survey fees.

A living crusade ... the truth of the gospel.

If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee

Generally, my writing is influenced by living, by absorbing everything that happens to me and my actions.